Rush Night (parts 1 and 2)

[popebuck1]

This is my first try, so do be gentle. This first part is all setup, but the muscle growth should be coming in the next installment! Enjoy!

RUSH NIGHT
by Pope Buck I

Part 1: Mentor


?I know I should feel lucky, but I don't. It's just ridiculous, Professor.?


It was late September and Kevin Young's sophomore year at Fremont Institute of Technology was just getting started. Kevin slumped dejected in his cushiony armchair, which under other circumstances would have been immensely comfortable. Professor Julian Hendricks' office was a cozy nook, lined with dark cherrywood bookshelves from floor to ceiling, all of which were jammed to capacity. Besides the ornate desk, covered with precarious stacks of papers and books, the room contained some end tables and file cabinets, similarly cluttered, and an electric hot plate with a battered teakettle, still steaming hot from the tea that had just been poured.


The book titles jumped out here and there in antique gold leaf: The World of Classical Mythology. Plutarch's Lives, in numerous faded green volumes. Edith Hamilton and Robert Graves and Bullfinch. Ovid, Kafka and McLuhan: Transformations In Media. Professor Hendricks had the thankless job of teaching Intro To Classical Literature, one of a handful of required liberal arts courses at Fremont Tech, and generally found himself teaching classes full of hardcore techno-geeks with no interest in anything right-brained. But he loved his work, and somehow managed to convey his love of the classics to the kids. He was something of a beloved figure around campus, and served as unofficial mentor to a number of the students, including many of the members of Rho Mu Sigma, the gay fraternity at which he was the faculty advisor.


?I know it seems frustrating right now, Kevin, but just keep at it. You boys don't realize all the great opportunities you have!? Compared to my generation, Kevin silently added. Professor Hendricks was only in his early 40s, but he was a plump little man in bulky sweaters and seemed like a parody of the absent-minded professor, a relic of the closeted generations of a hundred years ago. Not to mention he lived like an 80-year-old maiden lady. Kevin wondered if the professor had ever gotten laid in his life. He probably had a lot of opera records stashed somewhere. Kevin unconsciously started looking around for them, then realized the professor was still waiting for an answer.


?No, no, I realize I'm lucky. To find a gay frat on a campus this size? That's pretty much unheard of. But when you think of a gay frat house? You'd think someone would actually end up, you know, having sex once in a while. The problem isn't that we're gay, it's that we're such dweebs, you know?? Kevin hung his head in despair.


The professor sat back in his leather armchair and stared at young Kevin. Kevin certainly did look the part of a techie nerd: of slight build, with thick Coke-bottle glasses and a level of grease in his hair and skin that indicated he had probably skipped a few showers this week. Kevin was a certified genius in biochemistry ? most of the Rhos were geniuses in one field or another, or several ? but also like most of the Rhos, Kevin had few detectible social skills. In his private mind, Professor Hendricks had to agree with Kevin: the Rhos were a pretty sorry lot where anything outside of a lab was concerned.


Of course, I'm hardly one to talk, Julian thought to himself. The fact was, Julian saw himself in Kevin and his friends. Julian had come of age, fat and repressed, in the '80s in the middle of the Bible Belt ? the last generation that grew up still able to believe they were the only gay people on Earth. No Internet, no visible gay role models, no mention of gays at all except in the medical manuals Julian had furtively explored over and over in the back of the library stacks.


And then in Julian's teens, when gay men did start showing up on TV, it was on the news because they were all dying of a horrific and incurable disease. Was it any wonder he had been too traumatized to ever have had much of a sex life? He hadn't lost his virginity until an embarrassing encounter at 26, and had averaged less than one sexual act a year (at least, the ones involving other people) in the nearly 20 years since then. Instead he had crawled into the safe little womb of academia and left sex to the sexy.


But he had dreams. Oh, he still had dreams. Dreams fed by a lifetime spent in the company of Greek gods and heroes, magnificent athletes and sex-obsessed poets. Dreams of beautiful, strong men having unabashed sex, unafraid, confident. Classical literature had most certainly left its mark on Julian Hendricks ? and had led down some unexpected pathways as well.


Now, looking at Kevin more closely as he whined on and on, Julian's thoughts grew impatient ? how could these kids, with every resource imaginable, still be able to de-sex themselves so thoroughly? What would the Greeks have thought of them?


A thought struck him like a silent clap of thunder. Julian sat up straight in his chair.


?Kevin!?


Kevin looked up ? he had been interrupted in mid-sentence. ?Huh??


?I think I know who can help you.?


---


?Kevin, how much do you know about Hermes??


The professor's tone was unexpectedly sharp and serious.


?Hermes? Like, the god Hermes??


?Yes, Kevin. That Hermes.?


?Well, um... he's a god. Of the mind and stuff. He was the gods' messenger. Um... and he was like their angel of death, he took people away to the Underworld. And... he stole a bunch of cows or something??


While Kevin spoke the professor stood up, excited, and started looking through the piles of books stuffed into every corner of the bookshelves and stacked on every available surface.


?Very good. You still remember a little from my class, I'm flattered. He is the trickster god, oh yes. And the god of the mind, certainly. Patron of the geeks, as it were. But most of that came much later. He's much older than that. And he started off as something altogether more... primal.


?Now, where did I... hmm. Anyway. Hermes started off as a phallic god, the fundamental masculine principle. They built cairns in his honor.? Seeing the blank look on Kevin's face, Julian patiently went on, now fully in lecture mode. ?Cairns. Phallic stone columns, later used as way markers and milestones when people forgot their origins. And before Dionysius came along ? and he's very much a latecomer, by the way ? the orgiastic rites all belonged to Hermes.


?More to the point, my boy... Hermes wasn't just the god of the brain. He was of the body as well. The patron of athletes, of beauty, of striving for excellence.?


?Wait, you're saying... he was the god of geeks and jocks?? Kevin smiled sardonically. The professor had to be putting him on. But Hendricks continued solemnly.


?The Greeks didn't see those as mutually exclusive. The 'dumb jock' is a modern concept. The Greeks were all about 'sound mind in a sound body.' Thales of Miletus. The poets and philosophers all wrote odes to athletes and beautiful men. And of course, they all had sex on the brain ? aha!?


From the depths of one of the overstuffed shelves, Professor Hendricks pulled an ancient, crumbling book. The book's title, barely visible in slightly lighter, once-metallic letters on the cracked leather cover, was Esse disputationem in es de magicae Hermeticae. The professor held it reverently before him, and ceremoniously carried it over and presented it to Kevin.


Kevin stared at it without taking it from the professor's outstretched hands. The professor had an intense fire in his eyes that Kevin had never seen before.


?What am I supposed to...??


?Let me tell you something, Kevin. Long before I came out as a gay man, even to myself, I recognized myself as a pagan. My studies of classical literature have led me to find some very interesting materials. Chief among them... this book. Esse disputationem in es de magicae Hermeticae. 'Being a Discussion of the Art of Hermetic Magic.' Among many other accomplishments, m'lord Hermes inspired his very own branch of magic.?


The professor stopped short upon seeing Kevin's skeptical expression.


?You scoff. Of course you scoff. You're a scientist. But if you broaden your horizons, you'll see that science and magic are no more opposites than geeks and jocks.?


Kevin was fascinated with the old book itself. It seemed to radiate from its own internal power source ? it seemed to hum soundlessly and vibrate as he stared at it. It seemed to invite him to reach out and touch it ? he found himself having to consciously resist grabbing it out of the professor's hands. He realized he was squirming from the effort... and looked up, in time to meet the professor's knowing gaze.


?It's calling you, isn't it? The same way it called to me. You'll find my own commentaries and notes tucked in there too. I've translated and written out every spell in this book ? but I've never had the scientific expertise to actually cast them. But with your skills... Kevin my boy, I think you may finally be the one who can bring these spells to life. Go on, Kevin. Take it.?


That gentle suggestion was all the prompting necessary to overcome Kevin's resistance ? he quickly took the book, and held it as reverently and lovingly as the professor had.


?Go read it. I think you'll find exactly what you're looking for.?


The young student rose and left the office without saying another word, lost in thought. Professor Hendricks watched him go and a broad smile spread over his chubby face. Maybe, he thought. Maybe this is the breakthrough Lord Hermes has been waiting for.


---


Part 2: Daedalus


Monday night. Kevin sat in the chemistry lab, his home away from home ? no, scratch that. It was the closest thing to any kind of home he had here. Heaven knows, his so-called brothers weren't much of a family to him. They were all at least as geeky and ridiculous as he was, some more so.


The difference was, he had a way to do something about it, at least for himself. Or did he? None of this made sense. And yet -


He carefully thumbed the pages of the professor's book. The professor's translations, a neatly-stapled sheaf of typing paper, lay on the counter nearby, but he was more fascinated with the ancient tome itself. It had power, you could tell. His scientific mind didn't understand exactly how, but something else in him ? something he didn't quite recognize and couldn't put his finger on ? responded to it. He ran his fingers carefully over the crackling, faded pages, and the cramped lettters seemed to sing to him. What was he even looking for, looking through a book he couldn't even read? He flipped the pages idly...


...and suddenly stopped.


THIS one.


This was it.


He didn't know how, he didn't know why, but the page was screaming at him and he just knew. Kevin hurriedly reached for the translation and thumbed to the appropriate page.


?Elixir of the Champion. But one taste, drunk in wine or water, shall bring the strength, vitality and virility of the greatest of champions to any man.?


The list of ingredients and procedures was long and complex. Biochem genius though he was, Kevin could barely figure out what he was supposed to do.


But it WAS doable. He was figuring it out even as he puzzled over the list of arcane spell components. Yeah, he thought. I could... I could do this!


Which made him step back. Whoa. You mean... I could DO this?


---


Five days later. Friday night. The elixir was all but complete ? it had been a wearying few days, but it was all about to pay off. The spell ? er, the procedure ? had resulted in about eight bare ounces of clear liquid which Kevin had decanted into the only thing handy, an old flask bottle that had once contained white rum. Now it just had to ?ripen? a few more hours, and Kevin's dreams of being a musclestud were going to all come true.


Except ? dammit, he'd left his book bag in the lab. Now he'd have to go back and get it before the lab closed down. Oh well. The elixir could wait a little longer.


Kevin descended the stairs into the ground-floor rec room of the Rho Mu Sigma house. The rec room was as lame as the rest of the frat ? a bunch of geeks' idea of what a frat house rec room should look like. Pool table (rarely used), couches, and a ramshackle particle-board ?bar? that might have been the pride of someone's basement in 1950 and which had seen precious little alcohol. On the wall were the proud portraits of Rho Mu Sigma's proud and storied history ? all three years of it.


But Kevin didn't consciously notice any of this ? he was in a hurry and ran at full speed, smack into the Rhos' Social Chair, Brent Hayes. Of course, Brent was hard to miss ? he weighed over 350 pounds of pure blubber, and was pretty slow-moving to boot. But he was always cheerful, he carried a 4.0 average in some kind of high-level crystallography work that Kevin barely grasped, and he took his duries as Social Chair seriously. If only the whole pile of geeks hadn't been so resistant to the very idea of letting loose and partying, Brent's job might have been a lot more rewarding. As it was, he was always the only one bustling around being enthusiastic about a succession of uniformly lame parties.


At the moment, to Kevin's surprise, there was something of a flurry of activity. Brent was taking the label off of a brand-new plastic garbage pail, which looked to be fresh from Target. A few of the Rhos ? president Peter Yun, that annoying geek Felix Porter, a few others ? lolled around as though waiting for something to begin. More interesting, an assortment of liquor bottles, by no means a common sight at the house, sat nearby on the pool table. Kevin forgot to be angry at Brent for blocking his way down the stairs, and instead just gaped at the alcohol. Brent followed his gaze and chuckled.


?Nice, huh? For once, we're going to have a REAL party here! Oh, and I need your bottle from you.?


?My bottle?? Kevin said blankly.


?Didn't you get the text? I sent it to everyone! I got the recipe online. The idea is, everyone brings a bottle of something and we dump them all in together with some Hawaiian Punch and some cut-up fruit.?


?Gross. Doesn't it all end up tasting like vomit??


?You'd think that, but apparently not from what I've heard. Supposedly, the different liquors all cancel each other out and you just taste the punch. Though Porter gave me a bottle of absinthe ? I think I'll leave that one out. I think he got it because it sounded dangerous, but I tried a little and it's vile, like green NyQuil. Yicch.? Brent looked over at Porter, who was expounding on something to Yun on the couch, and shook his head. ?Other than that, everything's a go. So, your bottle...??


?Aw, geez, Brent. I was planning on doing some lab work tonight ? I've been working on a project that's almost done and it's at a super-delicate stage and --?


?Enough! Don't give me that studying crap!? Brent was not used to swearing, and it showed. ?This is Rush Night. It's mandatory for all brothers. No excuses. Party starts at nine and we ALL will be there. Hendricks is going to chaperone and he promised he wouldn't rat us out about the booze. C'mon, you of all people should be up for this! Aren't you the one who's always saying we need to cut loose more? Don't you want to set a good example for our new pledges??


Kevin thought of the current crop of five new pledges, and shuddered.


?Yeah yeah yeah, all right. I think I have a bottle of something back up in my room. Just give me a minute, I have to run to the lab and grab something. I'll be back in time for the party, I swear.?


?Okay, but you'd better be here!?


And with that, Kevin was on his way, and Brent cheerfully whistled to himself as he mounted the stairs toward Kevin's room. This really was going to be the best party EVER.

[tonypal76]

Like the set up, look forward to the development of the storyline.

[Mdlftr]

Let me guess--- Brent is going to dump the contents of Kevin's "PROJECT" into the communal punch bowl!


Sounds like an interesting "Rush night"!

Can't wait to read more. Engaging characters, compelling style that draws you in. Good job so far.

Mdlftr

[tattcub]

Good stuff so far...i like your writing style

TC

[michaelv2]

This is fabulous, like a gay, muscle growth Harry Potter. I see you do your research, I'm quite a fan of ancient myths, myself.

[philat99]

Very enjoyable! I'm looking forward to your next chapters.